Forgive the rather strange title of this post, but the question about Bitcoin is based on a horoscope cast by astrologer William Lilly on March 11 1646, at 4.45 pm. He asked a religious question, “If Presbytery shall stand?” He wanted to know whether a particular approach to religion will persist in England. His answer was a bit of a fudge, which perhaps reflected the fact that in 1646 England was a dangerous place, with a civil war between King and Parliament raging.

However Lilly was highlighting an approach to astrology. You ask about something, that perhaps many people take for granted, and you want to know whether it will persist. In the case of Presbytery, it was a religious issue, and therefore came under the auspices of the Ninth House. The condition of the Ninth House and its ruler wasn’t great in this chart, which was why Lilly’s answer was fairly negative.

Turning to Bitcoin, I own no Bitcoin, and I have no intention of owning any. My searching of the web, and reading magazine articles, would suggest that the consensus opinion is that Bitcoin is here to stay. Indeed there are many people saying that one should continue to put money into Bitcoin, in spite of its high price. So I got up on a Sunday morning, having talked to my brother about crypto-currencies the day before, and the question “Will Bitcoin stand?” popped into my head. Will Bitcoin remain as a serious financial product? Or is it something transitory? I was not asking, by the way, about crypto-currencies in general, for example Ethereum. My question was only about Bitcoin. And I was not asking about whether its price would go up or down – I was asking whether it would stand, as a long-term store of value, rather than as a fad.

I set up a horoscope for the moment I asked myself the question, which was at 6.50 am on Sunday June 11 2017, in Washington State. I briefly considered how I was going to deal with the question, and clearly it is a Second House matter – the Second House being connected with money.

The first question I had to ask was whether the chart could be judged. Cancer was rising, Venus was the ruler of the planetary hour, and the two are in accord with each other, being cold and moist. This suggested that I could go ahead with the chart. The Moon is ruler of the Ascendant, and she is not in great condition, being in Capricorn the sign of its detriment in the Seventh House. The question is about enemies and opponents. There are a lot of people who don’t want Bitcoin to stand, and at the same time, there is a lack of control. When you invest in Bitcoin, you don’t really know what is going to happen… you just expect momentum to take it higher. The Moon’s next aspect, its last aspect with a major planet before leaving Capricorn, is a square with Jupiter. This suggests to me that Bitcoin has got a little further to run, especially as Jupiter is ruler of the Tenth House, of price.

I say price because in property questions, the Tenth House can give indications about whether a house is expensive or not. The fact that Neptune, the planet of delusion, is conjunct the Tenth House cusp gives added information. The public image of Bitcoin is shrouded in a mist of delusion, and there are probably unreal expectations about its price potential.

Going back to the Moon in the Seventh House, this may tell us that one issue that Bitcoin has is competition from other crypto-currencies, for example Etherium. As I said, I wasn’t asking a question about crypto-currencies in general, but I had it in mind. If you have a commodity such as gold or silver, you can’t undermine their value by magically creating another precious metal, but this is something you can do with crypto-currencies, and maybe this is something to consider.

Looking at the Second House, and the ruler is the Sun in Gemini in the Twelfth House. This is Bitcoin. I suppose the placement in Gemini has connotations with change and volatility, while the Twelfth House is about something hidden and devious. Whatever is going on with Bitcoin, very few of us have the full picture. And quite possibly there are dark forces at work. The sun is approaching an opposition with Saturn in the Sixth House. Saturn is a major malefic, which disposes of both the Moon in Capricorn and the Part of Fortune in Aquarius in the Eighth House. My feeling is that Saturn will end the deal, and that Bitcoin will not stand.

As for timing, it is difficult to be precise. The opposition is separated by four degrees, so the big event, which signals Bitcoin’s fall from grace, is four units apart. It could be four days away, four weeks, four months or four years. My hunch is four months, which would take us to October 2017, but four years would take us to 2021. In six or seven years time, at the latest, I suspect people will be asking each other if they still remember the Bitcoin craze. However I must emphasize that I am making a forecast about Bitcoin’s status, rather than its price. Also, I am giving an opinion, and I may be wrong, and Bitcoin future may be long and rosy. But personally, I doubt it.

This week the Sun moves through the first degrees of Gemini. It’s a part of the sky that has some nasty fixed stars, specifically the Prima Hyadum, or the first Hyad. It’s also the third brightest star in the constellation of Taurus. In Greek mythology the Hyades are weeping sisters, mourning their dead brother, Hyas, who was apparently killed by a wild boar. As far as astrological meaning is concerned, Vivian Robson wrote the following about the Sun on the Prima Hyadum: “Evil disposition, disturbed mind, failure in study, muddled thinking, misfortune, murderer or murdered, death by blows, stabs, shooting, beheading or shipwreck”.

However just because you have your Sun close to the Prima Hyadum doesn’t mean you are heading for disaster. You can live out the symbolism without being damaged by it, for example if you’re an actor. Being an aficionado of old horror films, I can’t help noticing that Peter Cushing was born on May 26 1913, Christopher Lee on May 27 1922 and Vincent Price on May 27 1911.

As far as next week’s horoscopes are concerned, there’s no need to panic. The Sun crosses the Prima Hyadum every year, and it’s rare that anything bad happens. Anyway, here are my forecasts for the twelve signs, for the week starting on Monday May 22 2017:

Aries It’s a time for words rather than actions. Explaining how things should be, and making sure that you’ve got everyone on board. In terms of love, Venus makes a stressful aspect to Pluto. Partners are being defensive, and emotional matters need to be handled with great caution. At work you’ve got a compelling story to tell.

Taurus The Sun is now out of your star sign. The emphasis shifts. It’s not just about who you are, it’s about what you can build. Because in the end, you’ll be judged on results. You’re helped by a New Moon, that puts the emphasis fairly and squarely on your finances. What you start now, with modest investment, can become a gold mine in the fullness of time.

Gemini A good week for Geminis. The New Moon on Thursday gives you the impetus to move into top gear, but there’s no need to shout. Things that have their beginnings in total darkness have the best prospects of success. However one warning – moments of indecision could be very expensive.

Cancer Everyone is moving in a single direction. But you need to move in another direction. You can rejoin the crowd at a later stage, but right now the only person you can trust is yourself. After all, the best solutions are your solutions. Elsewhere partners and lovers are finding it difficult to express themselves.

Leo Right now you have a certain tendency to look at things in the worst possible light – not because you’re being pessimistic, but because you’re being over-imaginative. But really, the world can be pretty boring, and one’s worst fears rarely come to pass. A new encounter could have long-term consequences. It could be love, it could be a wonderful friendship.

Virgo This week there is a New Moon, in the career sector of your solar chart. Just because other people are slacking off for the Summer (if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere) doesn’t mean that you have to follow suit. There is a work to be done, and over the coming month you can give yourself a major competitive advantage. Don’t let a touch of negativity in mid-week put you off.

Libra Everything’s fine, but perhaps you could do with a little more variety? If you keep doing the same old things there will be a sense of stagnation, and you can’t rely on other people to provide all the excitement. Fortunately it’s a week when you can reach out for new horizons – and in the process you might want to plan a foreign trip.

Scorpio For Scorpios it’s a weird time of year. You feel that things aren’t quite right, and you don’t want to give away anything. In some respects your intuitions are correct, especially in midweek, when there is a New Moon in a sensitive sector of your solar chart. However your underlying knowledge of human nature could prove very useful.

Sagittarius Relationships are starting to take centre stage. You know that you can’t do everything alone, and you’re ready to make compromises. If you’re a single Sagittarius, a New Moon offers the possibility of new love, and in this light, the next few weeks could be crucial. However partners may need some words of encouragement.

Capricorn Excitement and adventure aren’t your main concerns. There are more pressing issues to deal with, for example organization and paper work. From a health perspective don’t be complacent – there are almost certainly things you can do to boost your overall level of fitness. A good week for starting new diets.

Aquarius You don’t have to take life so seriously. You can relax, and find interesting ways of enjoying yourself. In fact many Aquarians can enjoy doing two different things at once. On a different note, some diplomatic activity may be called for. Meeting one person, meeting another, and making sure that everyone has understood the message.

Pisces The focus is on your core security – where you feel at home, what makes you feel safe. So in this light, it’s OK to be selfish. If you’re not happy, everyone else suffers. Also, consider your living arrangements. Are they absolutely perfect? Could they be made better? Some Pisceans may make the decision that a change of home in the near future could bring them a change of luck.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Jupiter transits are the most common astrological technique used, particularly by beginners. Which is unfortunate, because they’re incredibly unreliable, and in terms of the astrologer-client relationship they cause more trouble than they’re worth.

It’s easy to see why Jupiter transits are so popular. Firstly Jupiter is the planet of good luck. Secondly they’re easy to spot. Thirdly they’re relatively uncommon.

So if I have a client with their Venus at 15 degrees Gemini, I can say that on April 18 2013 transiting Jupiter will be conjunct their Ascendant. I don’t need to calculate anything, I don’t even need a computer – I can look it up in a table of the planets’ positions. As for rarity, this transit will occur every twelve years or so.

When I first started practicing astrology, I would get very excited about Jupiter transits, and I would tell my clients that they would coincide with wonderful events. In terms of love, I would of course predict that transiting Jupiter would coincide with romantic fulfillment.

Unfortunately, the promised results hardly ever happened. Matters were made worse by anticipation. You tell someone that something good is going to happen… they wait and wait… and nothing.

However in my experience the situation is very different with Saturn. Saturn transits, which are often connected with frustration, delay and negativity, are much more effective. When I make a forecast on the basis of Saturn, I can be reasonably confident that I am describing real events and real feelings.

This was born out by a statistical study I recently did, comparing Jupiter and Saturn transits, in very specific circumstances. I actually got statistical significance for Saturn, but absolutely nothing for Jupiter.

I am not saying that Jupiter transits are entirely useless, especially when dealing with the angles (ie the Ascendant, Descendant, Midheaven and IC). For example, for twelve years I did contract work for the Orange mobile phone network – doing text and voice horoscopes. I got the job in 1996, when Jupiter crossed my Midheaven. I lost the job in 2008, also when Jupiter crossed my Midheaven.

I have seen other cases of people losing jobs with a Jupiter transit of their Midheaven, so the transit could go either way, depending on the situation. Also, Jupiter crossing an angle can represent a change of luck, that can persist for years.

Going back to working with clients, one thing an astrologer must never do is create unreal expectations. There is pressure to do this, but you have to resist it. And you must, in my experience, never forecast good news on the basis of a Jupiter transit alone – especially the kind of news that doesn’t have to be worked for. I say this because Jupiter transits can encourage laziness and complacency. If you tell a client that when Jupiter transits their Venus their love life will move into top gear, then you’re encouraging them to passively wait for the predicted event. Also, the more you expect something, the less likely it is to happen.

On Wednesday April 10 2013 there is a New Moon. It takes place at 10.35 am British Summer Time, which is 5.35 am in New York, 2.35 am in Seattle.

New Moons are not exactly unusual events. They take place every month. However this New Moon is rather exceptional, because it’s linked up with Venus and Mars. Put another way, there is a massive conjunction.

The Sun and Moon will both be at 20 degrees 41 minutes Aries, Mars will be at 22 degrees 23 minutes Aries and Venus will be at 23 degrees 55 minutes Aries. So it’s a New Moon that’s highly energetic, that could burn us out very quickly if we’re not careful.

However there’s no doubt that it’s exciting, and passionate as well. Under the New Moon’s red hot influence relationships could move into new areas, and whatever the emotions, whether they’re love, hate or anger, they’ll be hitting maximum very quickly.

If you’re planning on starting a new venture, the New Moon might be your signal. However bear in mind that this venture will require huge amounts of energy, and if you want to be successful, you’ll have to find a way of pacing yourself.

As far as world events are concerned, the New Moon is likely to have a big impact on the Middle East. This is because it will take place close to the Midheaven in this region. The city that gets the full blast of the New Moon’s energy is Damascus, the capital of Syria. Beirut, Tel Aviv and Ankara share the experience, but not so strongly. As we already know that Syria is in the grips of a Civil War, the New Moon is likely to move things along very quickly. Perhaps there will be a massive event, which shows that Assad really is finished. But it may be more complicated, and instability in one country could so easily spread into the next. So if you’re in the Middle East in April and May, tread carefully, and expect anything!

Why did Margaret Thatcher die when she did? What does her death tell us about the way different astrological techniques interact?

From a traditional point of view, one should be looking for the ‘terminus vitae’ – the primary direction that kills. Now astrologers who use primary directions, past and present, have been obsessed about accuracy, and they worry about which method of direction is used, whether it’s Ptolemy, Naibod or something else.

However in my opinion you have to be flexible, and you have to allow wider orbs.

Anyway, the first thing you need to do, when evaluating the terminus vitae, is to choose the hyleg. The hyleg is the giver of life, and according to the theory, when the hyleg receives a sufficiently bad direction, death will result.

Margaret Thatcher was born in the hours of daylight, at 9 am, so the first choice of hyleg is the Sun. It’s in the middle of the Eleventh House, which confirms its role.

We then come to the killing direction. This could in theory come from any planet, though ideally it will be Mars or Saturn, or perhaps Mercury, ruler of the Eighth House of death.

As it happens, Mercury is the planet that does it.

Using the simplest measure, one degree for one year, we find that the earth has to turn just over 83 degrees, from the time of Margaret Thatcher’s birth, to bring Mercury to a mundane square with the natal Sun. This is of course way too early, because Margaret Thatcher was 87 when she died, not 83. On the other hand if we run things backwards, and take the converse direction (converse in the modern sense of the word), Mercury hits the Sun when she’s 85, which is still nearly two years out. However if we use Naibod’s measure (59 minutes 8 seconds), we get closer, by over a year – the converse direction hits home in September 2012, less than seven months before the actual death.

Now the way I would see it, the primary directions are demarcating a zone, perhaps lasting from 2007 through to 2014, where Margaret Thatcher is incredibly vulnerable. And if we want to fine tune the date of her death, we need to look at other things affecting her Sun, for example profections and transits.

Profections are the system by which one progresses a planet one sign per year. At the time of her death her profected Mars was at 24 degrees 5 minutes Capricorn. Her natal Sun was at 19 degrees 30 minutes Libra, so Mars is making a square, but it is not exactly dead-on – indeed it’s gone past it by nearly five degrees, which equates to a couple of months. Still, Mars might have been sufficiently in orb to have weakened the Sun, and therefore to have weakened Margaret Thatcher’s life force.

We now look at the final cogs, the transits. Transits on their own are a very hit and miss predictive technique, but in combination with other methods they can be extremely useful.

At the time of Margaret Thatcher’s death her natal Sun at 19 degrees 30 minutes Libra was being opposed by the following personal planets:

This is a major conjunction, which was putting a lot of pressure on the hyleg. The Sun and Mars in particular were causing real trouble, their midpoint being at 19 degrees 49 Aries, only 19 minutes from the exact aspect.

As a final twist, Neptune was at 4 degrees and 26 minutes Pisces – in other words, it was only 4 arc minutes from a 135 degree aspect to the Sun.

Overall, these four transits crash into a hyleg that was already critically weakened by the Mercury primary directions. So in retrospect, it’s pretty easy to see why Margaret Thatcher died when she did.

So the Iron Lady is dead. A remarkable woman, who ruled Britain for nearly as long as Adolf Hitler ruled Germany. However Margaret Thatcher was undoubtedly more successful than Hitler. The Luftwaffe’s round-the-clock bombing raids failed in their objective of destroying Britain’s industrial base, but Margaret Thatcher and her government pulled the job off, without losing a single plane. Whole industries were brought to their knees, and I’m reminded of that every time I see a Mini Cooper whizzing by, that iconic British brand, now owned by the Germans. Britain was converted into a service economy, fuelled by the banks and financial sector, and in the process we became a dysfunctional, dog-eat-dog society. Yet one of the great ironies of the Iron Lady was that for all her talk of self-reliance, in her time in office the country spent billions on welfare payments, that helped create the dependency and entitlement culture that remains a running sore on Britain’s broken body.

Having said all that, Margaret Thatcher had a great chart, which is a perfect tool for teaching astrology. I always tell my clients that in a female chart the Moon tends to be more important than the Sun, and Margaret Thatcher’s Moon gives us the big picture. It’s at the end of Leo, conjunct Regulus the Royal Star, and it’s also close the the Midheaven, which is the career angle. This is the perfect signature of a proud woman, destined for the top job. Interestingly Winston Churchill also had the Moon in Leo, conjunct Regulus.

Another important planet in Margaret Thatcher’s horoscope was Saturn. It was in Scorpio, conjunct the Ascendant. Saturn is a harsh planet, that’s connected with discipline and responsibility. When it’s on the Ascendant, it’s a powerful influence, that defines how the world sees someone. It gives them gravitas, and allows them slowly but surely to take control. Also, because it’s in Scorpio, it gives a certain amount of inflexibility, and we are reminded of Thatcher’s famous remark, ‘the Lady’s not for turning’.

Margaret Thatcher’s Indian horoscope is particularly interesting. Saturn is still in the first house, but it goes back into Libra, the sign of its exaltation. For a politician having Saturn in Libra in the First House is a signature of greatness, and from a traditional perspective she can become ‘chief of her village’ – and more! Also, all of Margaret Thatcher’s planets are on one side of the nodal axis, which gives her a condition known as kala sarpa, which means something like ‘time of the snake’. People with kala sarpa have lives which are fated, over which they have little control. Margaret Thatcher was put on the planet for a purpose, and when her time arrived, there was nothing that could stop her, not even the IRA, who in 1984 supposedly came within a whisker of assassinating her, when they exploded a bomb in the hotel she was staying in.

For Margaret Thatcher, the time of the snake started on September 23 1972, when the eighteen year period of her life ruled by Rahu, the North Node, started. On this date, she was Secretary of State for Education, though it would seem she was yet to have higher ambitions – in March 1973 she said ‘I don’t think there will be a woman Prime Minister in my lifetime’.

Each period of life has nine sub-periods, and the first sub-period, also ruled by Rahu, is a kind of intermission stage, where the astrological effects slowly make themselves felt. This sub-period came to an end on June 6 1975, and at this point she’d been leader of the Conservative Party for several months. The rest we know. In 1979 she won her first election, and became Prime Minister. In 1983 and 1987 she won her second and third elections.

Then, on September 23 1990, the eighteen year Rahu period was over. The time of the snake was finished. Margaret Thatcher had lost her demon, and she could no longer stand up to her enemies. These enemies came from her own party, and just over two months later, on November 28 1990, she was out of office.

Finally, I should say something about her death. She was eighty-seven years old, so her death wasn’t untimely or unexpected. At the time of her death, Jupiter was at thirteen Gemini, which is interesting, because this ties in with her Eighth House of death. Using the Placidus house system, her Eighth House cusp is around fifteen Gemini, so that’s a close fit. We’re also remind that the planet Jupiter is often connected with death, because it provides a release, and death represents the next stage in her spiritual journey.

As far as actually predicting death is concerned, I would have expected her to have died a few years ago. I say this because in 2009 and 2011 there were primary directions involving Mercury, ruler of her Eighth House, and the Sun, which is her hyleg or life-force. Though maybe primary directions aren’t the exact science that some people claim.

Now that the dust is settling, it seems that the late Polish President, Lech Kaczyński, must take a certain amount of responsibility for the plane crash which killed him, his wife, as well as a chunk of the Polish elite. I would argue that this has much to do with the conjunction between the Sun and Uranus in his horoscope.

I’ve never actually met Lech Kaczyński, though I did get within a few yards of him in early 2003, when he was Mayor of Warsaw. It was during an exhibition in Warsaw’s Palace of Culture, that focused on the victims of Stalinism.

Lech Kaczyński was indeed a vocal critic of communism, and he had a distrust of the current regime in Russia. In particular, he seemed to have a problem with the Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin.

In 2008, during Russia’s war with Georgia, Lech Kaczyński, along with leaders from the Ukraine and the Baltic States, flew to Georgia, in a gesture of solidarity.

As the plane came into land at Tbilisi airport – Tbilisi being the capital of Georgia – the pilot took the view that the landing was too dangerous. Lech Kaczyński disagreed, and told the pilot to land anyway. The pilot refused, and took the plane to Azerbaijan.

So Lech Kaczyński had a reckless streak, and he was capable of meddling in things that he didn’t properly understand.

Let us also remember why Lech Kaczyński embarked on his last and fatal flight. It was to commemorate the victims of the Katyn Forest massacre, which happened seventy years earlier, in which over twenty thousand Poles were killed.

The main commemorations had been a few days earlier, attended by Vladimir Putin and Donald Tusk, the Polish Prime Minister.

For one reason or another Lech Kaczyński wasn’t invited to this commemoration, and it’s doubtful that he would have wanted anything to do with a ceremony that Vladimir Putin was involved in. No, he wanted a Polish show, that the Russians had as little to do with as possible.

We can now start to understand the psychological background of the plane crash. Lech Kaczyński was on a mission to commemorate the Katyn Forest massacre, on his own terms. When the pilot came into land at Smolensk, he ignored the advise of traffic control to divert to Minsk or Moscow. This would have spoilt everything – not just in terms of timing, but also it would have been an admission that the Russians had some control over the proceedings.

There is additionally the question of whether or not Lech Kaczyński pressurised the pilot to ignore the dangers, and land at Smolensk. Even if Lech Kaczyński hadn’t directly pressurised the pilot, there was perhaps a culture where people did what they were told, especially on such an important mission. After all, the pilot on the Georgia mission got some heavy criticism for playing safe, even though he was eventually awarded a medal for his conduct.

We really can see Lech Kaczyński’s Sun-Uranus conjunction at work. This conjunction is very stubborn, and is not afraid of conflict. The concept of independence is also an important feature of it. He’s not going to get cuddly with the Russians, he’s going to have his own commemoration of the Katyn Forest massacre and he’s not going to divert a flight just because conditions on the ground are dangerous.

So I would argue that the Sun-Uranus conjunction, that was in operation at the time of Lech Kaczyński’s birth on June 18 1949, in some respects led to the plane crash that killed him.

Further evidence is provided by looking at the midpoints.

At midday on June 18 1949 the Sun was at 26 degrees 51 minutes Gemini and Uranus was at zero degrees 30 minutes Cancer. So the Sun-Uranus midpoint was at 28 degrees 40 minutes Gemini.

At the time of the plane crash, on April 10 2010, Saturn was at 29 degrees 49 minutes Virgo and Uranus was at 27 degrees 55 minutes Pisces. This means that both planets were making stressful, 90-degree aspects to Lech Kaczyński’s Sun-Uranus conjunction.

The midpoint between Saturn and Uranus, on April 10 2010, was 28 degrees 52 minutes Sagittarius – almost exactly 180 degrees from the midpoint of the Sun and Uranus on June 18 1949, that was at at 28 degrees 40 minutes Gemini.

We can therefore say that the full, malefic potential of Lech Kaczyński’s Sun-Uranus conjunction was manifesting on the day of his death. Recklessness, stubbornness, and an independent-mindedness that was dangerous rather than noble. As astrologers are so fond of saying, ‘character is destiny’, and sometimes that destiny can be disastrous.

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Yes, I do. If you have got a question that needs answering, I'll help. If you're just curious about astrology, I'm probably not your person. My approach is traditional but non-spiritual, and I don't sugar-coat the message. My fee is $75 for a 1 hour phone or Skype consultation.